What the census data results say about the housing sector.

The recent census has revealed data showing the increase of group households in Australian capital cities. A group household is defined as more than two people that are over 15 and are not related that live in the same home. There has been a 10.5% national increase in the past 5 years of group households. Focusing on Sydney there has been a large 18% increase of share households due to an increase of reported unaffordability in the city.

The reasoning for this could be due to couples that are living together choosing to get married later in life, therefore still being considered as a group household. However increasing rent prices and the difficulty of saving for a deposit also qualify as reasons for this increase. It was determined in a recent core logic report that one of the most difficult barriers to entry into the housing market is saving for the deposit.

The census survey also found that due to investment properties in Australia capital cities becoming desirable in the last few years, there are dwellings that have been purchased and simply left empty. The unoccupied dwellings across Australia reached 1,089,165, which is ironic as there is a perception of inadequate house supply.

Surprisingly the census revealed that the average person in NSW, Tasmania and ACT owned their home outright, however the average home owner in WA, SA and Victoria are still paying off their mortgage. The results revealed that those in the Northern Territory were more likely to rent. The results for NSW however are quite surprising due to the increase in property prices and unaffordability in recent times, therefore you would expect that it would take longer for the mortgages to be paid off, whereas the census data is indicating that the average person in NSW has paid off their mortgage by the time they have reached the median age for residents which is 38.

This information seems contradictory in response to the data increase of share households increasing significantly in Sydney due to an unaffordability issue. Even though this data may seem surprising, experts have assumed that Australians can be confident with the quality of results.